Sociomoral reasoning, perceptions of parenting and self-reported delinquency in adolescents

This study considers the relationships between perceived parenting, sociomo ral reasoning, and self-reported delinquency in a sample of high school ado lescents. Correlational analysis revealed that moral reasoning was associat ed with a consistent disciplinary style. Self-reported delinquency was posi tively related to a number of the parenting variables but negatively correl ated with moral reasoning. Separate analysis for males and females showed s imilar patterns for self-reported delinquency, with the exception that mora l reasoning was negatively correlated with attachment and supervision among females. The most significant predictors of delinquency scores were parent ing variables, with moral reasoning also playing a role for males. A factor analysis of the perceived parenting measure revealed two factors. The firs t factor reflected a warm, inductive and involved style of parenting with t he second reflecting a parenting style characterized by physical punishment . Self-reported delinquency was negatively significantly associated with Fa ctor 1, and positively related to Factor 2. There were also differences in the self-reported delinquency scores of the top and bottom quartiles of Fac tor 1 scores. These support the conclusion that a parental style that is pe rceived to be warm, involved and inductive is associated with lower levels of delinquency in adolescence. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.